Adj. Associate Professor at Georgetown University, Fellow, Program on Extremism, George Washington University

Questions Erdogan Can’t Shirk

05/15/2017 01:42 am ETUpdated
May 17, 2017

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Turkey had the worst grade for media freedom of any country in 2016. Amnesty International stated that one-third of all imprisoned journalists are in Turkey.

Customarily, when a world leader visits another country, visiting and host leaders would hold press conferences. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet President Trump on May 16, and we have yet to see if there is going to be a press conference after their meetings. A week before Erdogan arrived in Washington, D.C., his envoys, including his Chief of Staff, his Director of the Turkish National Intelligence, his Minister of Justice and his Speaker of the Presidency spent several days meeting with their American counterparts to discuss critical issues without public appearances or press conferences. By the way, don’t expect Erdogan to take direct questions, unless previously screened, as happened before at the Brookings Institution.

Of course, there are several reasons behind the Turkish president’s running away from the free press. Unlike in Turkey, Western journalists would ask questions neither Erdogan nor any of the Turkish delegation would dare answer. By arresting almost 200 journalists, scaring another 200 out of the country and confiscating or shutting down tens of media outlets, Erdogan made sure journalists in Turkey would not ask any disturbing questions. Erdogan also confiscated or shut down tens of media outlets because he cannot answer the following questions:

Terrorism:

Do you consider the Islamic State as a terrorist organization?

Islamic State has not been openly and specifically, in legal terms or in official decisions, listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey. Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials would argue that Islamic State was already recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey’s 2013/5428 ministerial council decision based on UN security council resolutions as the al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, the Islamic State did not exist then formally, and the caliphate was established in July 2014.

Why did you halt all ongoing police investigations against the Islamic State and other Salafist Jihadist terrorist organizations including Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat Fateh al-Sham) after December 2013 corruption operations against your close circles?

Turkey did not carry out a single pre-planned, intelligence-led counterterrorism operation on its soil against the Islamic State or other jihadi terrorist organizations in the years 2014 and 2015. Even in 2016, after a series of Islamic State attacks inside Turkey, counterterrorism operations were mostly carried out in reaction to different terrorist incidents, and in most cases, suspects were released swiftly. Today still many Islamic State suspects are being freed abruptly even though they were involved in terrorist attacks. As a result of these flawed policies, the number of terrorist attacks and people killed in Turkey by Salafi Jihadist terrorist organizations skyrocketed after 2014, a surge more than four hundred percent compared to recent years[1].

Why did you allow over 25.000[2] Islamic State foreign fighters travelling through Turkey to join the Islamic State? Why were they not stopped and sent back?

Turkey became a conduit for the Islamic State foreign fighters[3] who constitute the backbone of the terrorist organization. Almost all foreign fighters including the American and European Islamic State members went through Turkey to join the terrorist organization killing thousands of innocent people. In fact, in some cases, foreign fighters were accompanied by the Turkish intelligence officers.

Why did you allow the Islamic State to establish a logistical supply chain acquiring almost all of the explosive making materials from Turkey without any interruptions? Similarly, the Islamic State obtained the materials from Turkey for its homemade weapons including steel pipes for mortars and rocket heads.

Turkey had been until 2016 the main supplier of arms and explosive materials for the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations in the region. According to European Union-funded Conflict Armament Research (CAR) report identifying and tracking the explosives and conventional weapons supply chain to the Islamic State, “the Islamic State operates a major acquisition network in Turkey and has a direct line of supply from Turkey, through Syria, to the Mosul area.[4]” Furthermore, CAR reports stated that Islamic State “forces source most of the products used in the manufacture of weapons and ammunition from the Turkish domestic market.[5]”

Why did you provide private and free medical treatment to the Islamic State members?

Thousands of Islamic State fighters were treated in Turkish hospitals free of charge. For example, one of al-Baghdadi’s deputies, Ahmet el-H received free medical treatment in a hospital in Sanliurfa[6]. Similarly, the general director and owner of the Private Sani Konukoglu Hospital in Gaziantep Turkey told to the Chief of Gaziantep Counter-terrorism Department during an interview about the booming business of treating Islamic State commanders in his private hospital citing the Turkish National Intelligence was paying cash and never questioned the bills[7].

You questioned the West by asking “Why do you call al-Nusra terror organization?” on June 22, 2016[8]. The Turkish police or intelligence have not carried out any investigations on al-Qaeda and its satellites in Turkey recently. Al-Nusra operatives are known to freely operate in Turkey without any interruptions.

Why did you order the Turkish National Intelligence to transfer weapons to Salafist Jihadist terrorist organizations?

Numerous Salafist Jihadist terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda affiliates and the Islamic State, openly carried out their armament and logistical support operations inside and through Turkey or they were provided arms and explosives by the Turkish National Intelligence (MIT). For example, three trucks operated by the MIT loaded with military -grade weapons were stopped on Adana highway on January 19, 2014, revealing the ongoing transfer of arms and explosives to terrorists in Syria[9]. Based on the leaked phone communications of one of the Turkish Airline executives Mehmet Karakas and Prime Minister Erdogan’s advisor Mustafa Varank’s, it was revealed that the Turkish Air was transferring weapons to Boko Haram in Nigeria on March 18, 2014[10]. To this day, there has not been an official explanation of the reasons behind arming the Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Why did your family purchase, transfer and export Islamic State oil, thus providing hundreds of millions of dollars to the terrorist organization?

Redhack, a Turkish hacker group, released the emails of Berat Albayrak, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources and the son-in-law of Erdogan. The world understood through the hacked emails of Albayrak that he continuously purchased Islamic State oil through his satellite company Powertrans[11]. Similarly, Russian military officials provided hard evidence that Turkey was involved in oil trade with the Islamic State by providing satellite pictures of the trucks carrying out oil out of Islamic State territory towards Turkey[12]. More importantly, Erdogan’s son Bilal Erdogan through his oil shipping company sold the same oil to the world oil market[13]. These transactions provided the Islamic State a steady income of at least $3 million a day at the peak of Islamic State’s oil production[14]. These funds provided the terrorist organization hundreds of millions of dollars to fund its operations in brutally killing thousands of innocent people.

Why did you hand over the senior Islamic State members who were wanted through the Interpol’s red notices instead of extraditing them to the countries that issued the red notices?

Turkey handed over 201 Islamic State terrorists, most of whom were senior foreign fighters, to the Islamic State on two separate occasions including the Turkish Mosul Consulate hostage exchange[15] on June 11, 2014 and during the Suleyman Shah tomb operation on February 22, 2015[16]. Those Islamic State fighters were residing in Turkey and arrested by the Turkish police for an exchange of hostages held by ISIS in Iraq, and to gain the release of Turkish soldiers stuck and encircled by ISIS fighters in Syria. Turkey handed over several Islamic State terrorists including some who were being wanted via the Interpol “red notices.” For example, Ahmed Diini, a Dutch citizen of Somali origin who was wanted by American authorities on terrorism charges, was handed to the Islamic State on Sept. 20, 2014, even though the U.S. government had requested that Turkey extradite him back to the U.S. for trial. Similarly, Islamic State senior leader Mohamed Mahmoud, known as Abu Usama al-Gharib, an Austrian citizen, was among the terrorists who were handed over to the Islamic State. Mahmoud went on to command large units of ISIS terrorists in Syria and reportedly murdered hundreds of people[17]. Moreover, Erdogan and his administration openly mislead the public and concealed the fact that there was an exchange of prisoners during the Suleyman Shah tomb operation.

Why were various NGO’s close to Erdogan involved in supporting different Salafist Jihadist terrorist organizations in Syria?

Beginning 2104, the Turkish police and bureaucracy realized that Islamic State and other Salafist Jihadist groups were untouchable and that they should not mess with them. For example, on January 15, 2014, when the police from Van, a city in the east of Turkey, attempted to interdict arms smuggling of al-Qaeda affiliates from Turkey to Syria and search the warehouses of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid (IHH)[18], Erdogan and his supporters were furious, and the police and prosecutors themselves were promptly fired and arrested. IHH was the organizer of the Mavi Marmara (Blue Flotilla) group trying to break the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza[19] backed by Erdogan. Additionally, despite their terrorist ties, several NGOs became attractive for the Turkish bureaucracy and politicians; for example, the Prime Minister Davutoglu visited Bulbulzade Vakfi (association) Gaziantep branch when he was in Gaziantep, as well as several other ministers, despite the fact that police already knew Bulbulzade Vakfi had direct ties to ISIS and al-Qaeda militants[20].

Did Erdogan radicalize the Turkish public by taking a favorable approach towards Salafist Jihadist terrorist organizations?

The Islamic State and other Salafist terrorist activities were almost never condemned until the midst of 2016 when the Islamic State openly started to target Turkey. Erdogan did not publicly state the Islamic State was a terrorist organization until the beginning of 2016[21]. Similarly, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu referred to the Islamic State as “bunch of frustrated young guys[22],” not labeling them as terrorists, and almost openly legitimizing the group in public speeches. Similarly, during those times Turkish public have seen Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliament members cited the line, “the ISIS is not a terrorist organization” or AKP members called openly, “Long live the Islamic State, May Allah increase your bullets.[23]” Likewise, many AKP members were associating themselves with the Islamic State because they were not considering it as a terrorist organization like four AKP member were caught during an operation related to the Islamic State in Izmir[24].

Additionally, it is estimated that over 5,000 Turks have joined to different Salafist terrorist organizations in Syria[25].

Finally, in Today’s Turkey, Salafist Jihadist terrorist organizations enjoy mind-boggling privileges. For example, the Islamic State opened four schools in the middle of Ankara[26], maintained training centers[27] and camps in Istanbul[28], and operated hundreds of safe havens and terrorist cells across the country[29].

Why did you release almost all the Islamic State terrorists from Turkish prisons after 2014?

Many Islamic State terrorists who were arrested prior to 2014 were systematically released from prisons. For example, Halis Bayancuk, alias Abu Hanzala, one of the prominent Islamic State supporters in Turkey who used to openly preach to support the Islamic State, was released from prison during this period and he continued supporting the terrorist organization for a long time on social media and during sermons. He remains free in Turkey[30]. Similarly, many other Islamic State terrorists were promptly released after their arrests. For example, in December 2015, 25 Islamic State suspects including a suicide bomber who was captured as he was seeking to become a suicide bomber were released from prisons over a week of time[31]. Or, similarly, all 96 suspects being released in groups from prison including their leader Halis Bayancuk at a trial in Istanbul on March 24, 2016[32].

Corruption

http://haber.sol.org.tr/turkiye/17-aralikin-birinci-yili-hirsizlik-ve-yolsuzluk-devam-ediyor-hala-103259
December 17, 2013, corruption operation. Money and safes found in one of the Minister’s son’s home.

Apart from Erdogan’s open support to various Salafist Jihadist terrorist organizations, there are a lot of corruption related cases need to be investigated and questioned. In fact, thousands of police officers, judges and prosecutors are now locked up due to the fact that they attempted to investigate those crimes, and many journalists who dared to write about those operations found themselves among those officers.

Why did you assist Iran during the embargo and launder their oil money worth billions of dollars?

Erdogan facilitated some Turkish banks to avoid U.S. sanctions against Iran[33]. While doing so, he used an Iranian-Turkish businessman, Reza Zarrab, as a middle man between Turkey and Iran[34]. He immediately established a grand illicit organized crime scheme to make Iran’s loss his massive profit and to launder Iran’s money over Turkey and Turkish banking system[35]. Through Erdogan’s actions, Iran continued to finance its illicit activities in the region, including financing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Erdogan calls Iran his “second home,” as he did so when he met with the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on January 29, 2014[36].

How much were you paid as bribes and commissions during laundering Iran’s money and transferring its funds to Iran?

Reza Zarrab, was the key person in laundering Iranian money and transferring illegal funds to Iran through Turkish banks or as gold. He was arrested by the FBI in March 2016 and is currently in a federal jail in New York[37]. Erdogan used Zarrab as the middleman between Iran and Turkey while transferring funds and the gold and Zarrab was distributing the commissions and bribes from Iran and from these illicit transactions in Turkey to the people who were involved including Erdogan himself, his close family members, three ministers, Egemen Bagis, Muammer Guler and Zafer Caglayan, and the CEO of Halkbank[38]. In fact, Zarrab had saved Excel spreadsheets to record the bribes and commissions[39].

Babek Zanjani was the Iranian businessman who was in charge of this scheme and also Zarrab’s boss. He was later arrested and accused of money laundering, forgery, fraud and disrupting the Iran’s economy and charged with crimes that would have been sanctioned with capital punishment because he stole the State’s money[40]. He was eventually sentenced to death on March 2016[41].

Though we do not have records of how much Erdogan got totally from these illicit dealings, Zanjani claimed during his trial in Iran that he had distributed $8.5 billion dollars as bribes and commissions in Turkey[42].

Why did you have over 1 billion dollars in cash at your home in your basement on December 2013? Why did you feel the necessity of hiding that money? Where did that money come from? What happened to that money?

Turkey woke up to a corruption operation on December 17, 2013, involving Erdogan’s close circles in Istanbul by the Istanbul Police Financial Crimes Investigation Department. Erdogan, after hearing the operation, of course, understood where it could reach and got very disturbed and frustrated. Erdogan was in Konya on December 17, 2013. As Erdogan first heard of the operation, he immediately called his son Bilal early morning who was in Istanbul sleeping in his bed. Erdogan told his son to get rid of the cash, which was over one billion dollars, and some million Euros hid in their Istanbul villa, according to leaked phone wiretappings[43]. Bilal, very confused and scared, asked his father several times how to get rid of the money as it was too much in volume and it would be impossible to hide that amount of money easily in limited time[44]. Erdogan, realizing he could not trust his son, immediately sent his daughter Sumeyye to direct the operations. That day, Bilal, Sumeyye, and Erdogan’s son in law, Berat, somehow managed to disperse and hide the money apart from the twenty-five million Euros which they could not find a suitable place to hide. Eventually, they decided to purchase eight villas from prestigious Sehrizar Villas with the euros left[45]. As the wiretap leaked, Erdogan family denied the purchase of the villas, but ultimately, the receipts for the payment and registration of the villas on Bilal’s name also became public making Erdogan mum about the cash and villas.

AKP supporters claimed that the police planted the money found in the homes of Erdogan's Minister's sons and the CEO of Halkbank[46]. If this is true, then why after the suspects were released from the prisons, all the money confiscated during the searches were handed back to them with interest?

It is unfortunately grand theater in front of everybody. If you take it, it is good. If you understand the grant corruption scheme and try to raise your voice against it, you are terrorist, and you go to jail. If you shut up and live your life and support Erdogan, you are fine. This is the citizens’ way of life after 2014 in Turkey. Therefore, all these absurdities have been happening in front of us, and the thieves in the country are still wandering around as heroes and considered honorable people.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/06/turkey-iran-corruption-suspect-reza-zarrab-exporter-award.html#ixzz4h7f2seiw
Reza Zarrab awarded the top exporter award by the Turkish Exporters Assembly, June 21, 2015. (photo by Twitter/sedatglmz)

Zarrab received Turkey’s top exporter award in the field of jewelry on June 21, 2015, through the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) from the hands of the deputy prime minister and AKP deputy chairman Numan Kurtulmus and Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci[47]. Inexplicably, Zarrab got this award for laundering Iranian oil money through Turkey by sending gold to Iran without paying taxes since in Turkey there are no export taxes for gold. Similarly, Zarrab was interviewed at Erdogan’s ATV in front of a Turkish flag claiming that he had helped to reduce Turkey’s currency account deficit[48]. However, the fact is that Turkey as a country has earned almost nothing from Zarrab’s illicit trade activities, but Erdogan and his ministers earned a lot of money while Turkey was losing all the tax and custom payments simply because Zarrab was carrying out all those activities illegally under the protection of Erdogan without paying taxes and falsifying documents and receipts.

Why are you trying to save Reza Zarrab?

Erdogan made public statements about his upcoming meetings with Mr. Trump on May 16, 2017, claiming that Reza Zarrab is a Turkish citizen and like every other Turkish citizen he must protect his rights. He added that he would request that President Trump release Zarrab and halt the trial in New York[49]. But since several other Turks are in American prisons, why is Erdogan not protecting their rights but only Zarrab’s? In fact, the absurdity does not end here. Erdogan openly stated that the prosecutor and judge overseeing the Zarrab case are terrorists and have ties with Fethullah Gulen[50].

According to the application for bail filed by Zarrab’s attorneys at Brafman & Associates, P.C, Zarrab gave $4.65 million to Togem-Der, a charity founded by Erdogan’s wife based on the U.S. court filings[51]. This filing is strange because Zarrab is through revealing this connection and small donation sending a harsh message to Erdogan, “save me from here, otherwise, I will start talking”, which was very well received as Erdogan hired former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and major Trump ally and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey as a lobbyist and lawyer to save Zarrab and close the case[52].

How much money do you have in eight separate Swiss bank accounts?

Based on the leaked cables sent by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Erdogan has eight accounts in Swiss banks, and the cable continues to give details such as this: “his (Erdogan) explanations that his wealth comes from the wedding presents guests given to his son and that a Turkish businessman is paying the educational expenses of all four Erdogan children in the U.S. purely altruistically are lame,[53]” Eric Edelman, the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, wrote in a cable sent to Washington on December 30, 2004.

Erdogan’s son Burak has six cargo ships, and Bilal has ten oil tankers worth millions of dollars. Bilal’s company’s name is BMZ Group, and his tankers are registered in Malta therefore not paying taxes to Turkey. Furthermore, the same tankers were used to transfer ISIS oil around the world which was purchased by Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak[54].

Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is an adjunct professor of Criminology, Law, and Society at George Mason University. He is also senior research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE). Dr. Yayla has been noted for his ability to move between policy, operational and academic environments. He has for years advised high-level government policymaking officials. Operationally, he is an experienced practitioner in law enforcement, particularly focused on counterterrorism. He also served as the chief of counterterrorism and operations department of the Turkish National Police in Sanliurfa between 2010 and 2013. He formerly served as a professor and the chair of the sociology department at Harran University in Turkey. His academic work includes co-authorship of the newly released book ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate.

[25] The Center for Turkish Studies at the Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), “Recruiting for Jihad: The Allure of ISIS,” February 25, 2016, http://www.mei.edu/events/recruiting-jihad-allure-isis

[33] Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Turkish National Arrested for Conspiring to Evade U.S. Sanctions Against Iran, Money Laundering and Bank Fraud,” March 21, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/turkish-national-arrested-conspiring-evade-us-sanctions-against-iran-money-laundering-and & Preet Bharara, the U.S. vs Zarrab indictment, March 21, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/834146/download

[34] Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Turkish National Arrested for Conspiring to Evade U.S. Sanctions Against Iran, Money Laundering and Bank Fraud,” March 21, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/turkish-national-arrested-conspiring-evade-us-sanctions-against-iran-money-laundering-and & Preet Bharara, the U.S. vs Zarrab indictment, March 21, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/834146/download

[36] Editorial, “Erdogan in Tehran : Iran is Second Home,” United States Institute of Peace, January 29, 2014, http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2014/jan/29/erdogan-tehran-iran-second-home

[37] Yayla, A.S., “Turkey’s July Coup Attempt: “A Gift from God” to a new Authoritarianism.” The United States Congress. http://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA14/20160914/105312/HHRG-114-FA14-Wstate-YaylaA-20160914.pdf, September 14, 2016.

[39] Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York “Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Arrest Of Turkish National For Conspiring To Evade U.S. Sanctions Against Iran, Money Laundering, And Bank Fraud,” March 21, 2016, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-arrest-turkish-national-conspiring-evade-us-sanctions